Trains
- All train stations have been fitted with Opal poles with a majority of stations also fitted with readers

Ferries
- All wharfs have been Opal fitted

Buses
- Nearly all buses have some sort of Opal equipment whether begin pads, readers or consoles
- Only STA, Forest and Transdev have been confirmed to have Opal readers installed

Opal Charge Stations
- All Opal ticket boxes have not been activated
- Opal ticket boxes are located at all Opal-activated wharfs and some stations
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Timeline of Opal:
- April 2010: NSW Labor Transport Minister David Campbell announces a new contract with Cubic Constructions for a new electronic ticketing system after the failed Tcard project
- September 2011: Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian announces that Sydney’s electronic ticketing system will be called Opal after 665 names were considered
- Early 2012: New ticketing consoles are installed on private buses in Sydney
- February 2012: New ticketing poles are installed at Sydney train stations and ferry wharfs removing the previous ‘iron cover’ stands intended for the Tcard
- June 2012: New ticket barriers (similar to ones used on the train network) are installed at major Sydney ferry wharfs. With these, new ticket barrier indicators are also installed replacing the old LED ones
- October 2012: Opal Card is discussed in the TfNSW Transport Masterplan that it will be NFC capable and will reduce the number of existing ticketing types
- Late 2012: Opal Card readers are installed at Neutral Bay wharfs and some STA buses are fitted with Opal Card bases
- December 2012: Opal Card officially launches with a trial rollout starting on the Neutral Bay line first
- April 2013: Customer Trial extended to the Manly ferry service (HCF)
- June 2013: Customer Trial begins on the City Circle and Eastern Suburbs Line
- August 2013: Customer Trial extended to remaining HCF lines and the North Shore Line up to Chatswood
- September 2013: Customer Trial begins on buses for the first time with 594/594H as the first route
- December 2013: Customer Trial extended to route 333
- January 2014: Customer Trial extended to Strathfield, Epping, Hornsby, Gosford and Wyong
- February 2014: Customer Trial extended to Carlingford, Casula, Penrith, Richmond and Olympic Park

Rollout of Opal:

Throughout 2014, All Sydney Trains, NSW Trainlink Intercity stations and buses that already support the MyZone ticketing system will be rolled out with Opal. It is also expected that the Opal card will be available for purchase anonymously, concession cards and periodic fares made available (there is also the possibility that the fare structure may change with the Opal card).

It is expected that the Opal rollout will be completed in 2015. According to media reports, Opal will include short term cards and the current ATC system will be removed between 2015 - 2017.

Contact drgarbanzo

St james station has had during today two little r2-d2-like thngs added to the tops of the gates on the central side. Not all the gates had them though. Had some sort of led text readout on it, though I can't remember the details. Not sure if this is related to the Opal trial or something else. Any ideas what they might be?

Contact R44

In a online submission to IPART, some notes have been added on how Opal may work:

The Opal Card will be rolled out from late 2012, starting on Sydney Ferriesâ€™ services. Opal will be a pay-as-you go system which will be able to automatically deduct the correct fare from stored value on the customerâ€™s Opal Card. The system is being designed so that passengers do not have to decide which ticket or tickets that they need to buy before they travel. Instead, they will be able to travel across the public transport network and,
regardless of whether they are using a bus, train or ferry â€“ or where their journey starts and finishes â€“ the Opal Card will work out the fare for their trip combination. Further announcements about how the Opal Card will operate will be made before the roll out commences.A user

TfNSW notes that the Opal Card will operate very differently from the current, magnetic stripe ticket products which must be purchased in advance, based on the customerâ€™s expectations of how they will travel. Instead, customers will have the option of travelling across the network and the system will calculate the correct fare, including any discounts that will apply (such as frequency discounts to reward regular customers).A user

Noting that the introduction of Opal may require different approaches to fare setting â€“ and that the determination for metropolitan and outer-metropolitan bus services expire at the end of 2013, TfNSW supports annual determinations for Sydney Ferries and CityRail in 2012. This will provide IPART with the flexibility to alter its fare setting approach during the Opal transition period to take into account ongoing developmentsA user

Well, there was a problem in Singapore where the coding was found to be incorrect and riders were accidentally charged a few cents more per ride. The government traced all of the transactions and fined both operators a couple million.

However, I think detail fraud shouldn't be too serious a concern unless they're tied to a person's name and address.

CITYRAIL will spend up to $100 million keeping antiquated steel ticket machines on stations until 2017, despite them being made obsolete next year.
A new $370 million ticketing system is scheduled to be rolled out on Sydney Ferries from December and across the CityRail network from July 2013.

But The Daily Telegraph understands commuters won't be forced to use the new system until at least 2015 after CityRail signed a new three-year contract to maintain the old system.

New digital screens are already being rolled out at ticketing gates on CityRail stations and at wharves in preparation for the introduction of the digital Opal card.

But while they will be ready for operation imminently, CityRail will pay San Diego-based Cubic Transportation $20 million a year to maintain the current ticketing equipment, infrastructure and delivery of associated services on Sydney's rail network.

The new three-year contract has two one-year extension options meaning CityRail could spend up to $100 million keeping the old system in place - even when it is no longer needed.

A RailCorp spokesman said current ticket gates and other ticketing equipment will be retained and converted for use with the Opal smartcard system.

As part of the 2010 contract, Cubic won the right to provide all operation services for the next 10 years following the smartcard's introduction, meaning the same company will be maintaining two separate but side-by-side ticketing systems.

"While the smartcard ticketing system is introduced, a transition period is also required to allow customers to migrate to the Opal smartcard," the spokesman said.

"Certain projects, such as the upgrading of the new ticketing gate display screens which will be compatible with the new Opal smartcard ticketing system, are also included (in the new contract)."

Victoria fully implemented its smart ticketing system, the myki card, across its public transport network in July 2010 and will phase out paper tickets at the end of the year, giving commuters just 18 months to make the switch.

A Victorian Transport Ticketing Authority spokesman said the myki was already used for 61 per cent of all public transport trips.

In London plans are already under way to replace its all-in-one Oyster card - which was also developed by Cubic - with a touchless system that will enable commuters to simply wave their debit or credit card over a reader. According to Cubic, the Opal card will be future-proofed, with the readers capable of using contactless payment via bank cards and mobile phones.Daily Telegraph

Contact abesty1

That's $60-100 million over 3-5 years well spent I think, when you consider the frustration and inconvenience that could be caused to Sydney commuters if (and more likely when) the Opal system falls over. Lengthen the transition time, and there's at least something to fall back on if there's any problems.

Personally I hope CityRail do a better job than Metro did with myki - I have no problems understanding CityRail's quite simple ticketing machines, but damned if I could find any information on how to use myki when I travelled to Melbourne last month! Zones, weekend rates and even things like how to buy a card were not easy to figure out, and I'm the sort of person who can set up a piece of equipment without glancing at the manual. I can only imagine how confusing it would be for an elderly/foreign/non technically inclined person.

Oh, having to pay $6 for a smart card that I only used for 4 days is a bit stupid too. I can understand why the cards cost money, but it's just another one of those frustrations for visitors or infrequent users.

Posted: 27 Apr 2012 17:35

Contact piepants

Must be a slow news day, nothing like a good old fashioned "put crap on RailCorp" story, the ignorant villagers always eat it up. As piepants puts, it's better to have a working (if outdated) ticketing system to "fall back on", rather than pulling the rug out from everyone. We had this problem when the tullochs got withdrawn for the Millenium trains. Millenium trains were a spectacular failure (at first), we we ended up with 7-car trains running just to meet service levels. Management has been reluctant to make the same mistake again, with the OSCars and now the Waratahs. Slow and steady is better than rushing in, throwing money around and having it be wasted. We don't need a repeat of the T-Card failure after all of the old infrastructure has been ripped out...

Posted: 27 Apr 2012 17:50

Contact Raichase

Oh, having to pay $6 for a smart card that I only used for 4 days is a bit stupid too. I can understand why the cards cost money, but it's just another one of those frustrations for visitors or infrequent users.piepants

Ouch - in Singapore you pay $1 extra for a single use card, and that's refunded if you return the card at the other end, which seems an excellent approach. Hong Kong have two card types, the single use cards being a plastic card used like our current tickets, and captured at the end - not as good for the operator in that two systems need to be maintained. Hopefully the Opal card doesn't follow the Melbourne example, but more like Singapore.

Posted: 27 Apr 2012 19:51

Contact biqua

That article's worth remembering. In a couple of year's time, we could well see the Telegraph reporting on schedule slippages or reliability problems (or inventing them like The Australian does the NBN).

When they're attacking this failure instigated by David Campbell in the dying days of the Kenneally government, calling for it to be cancelled and asking why the Kenneally and O'Farrell governments alike didn't just retain the old system, you can recall that the Telegraph whipped up this scandal in April 2012.

Posted: 27 Apr 2012 20:40

Contact Speed

Oh, having to pay $6 for a smart card that I only used for 4 days is a bit stupid too. I can understand why the cards cost money, but it's just another one of those frustrations for visitors or infrequent users.piepants

Ouch - in Singapore you pay $1 extra for a single use card, and that's refunded if you return the card at the other end, which seems an excellent approach. Hong Kong have two card types, the single use cards being a plastic card used like our current tickets, and captured at the end - not as good for the operator in that two systems need to be maintained. Hopefully the Opal card doesn't follow the Melbourne example, but more like Singapore.

biqua

+1

The Singapore approach is excellent in every regard, except that I believe Opal is to include a disposable card, which may be free or given some slight surcharge.

Posted: 27 Apr 2012 20:58

Contact Watson374

Of course, MTR had nothing to do with Myki. Myki equipment was installed at all Melbourne stations before their Metro Trains consortium started running Melbourne's suburban network. Myki is the responsibility of the Transport Ticketing Authority, the Department of Transport or Public Transport Victoria.

There's plenty of protesting about Myki not supporting short-term tickets on the current Myki thread. Ask there if you want to know whether Myki short-term tickets are still available in cities surrounding Melbourne like Geelong and Seymour. It was intended originally that Myki support short-term tickets throughout Victoria but they've been excluded from the project, at least for now, by the new government.

Contact Speed

Is there ever going to be a local ticketing discussion without the token mention of HK or Singapore...

Let me get this straight, when they deploy this project and if I do not travel frequently, lets say once a week for discussion purpose, I need to pay for the disposable ticket which may last only a week on top of the precisely metered non discounted fare?

So in essence I would be paying twice what the paper ticket fare would be for an infrequent journey ?

Eg this week I traveled to North Sydney once and that cost me 6.60, your saying the disposable card can cost $6 also so infrequent travelers are subsiding frequent travelers so would load their card up and use it up in a week anyway ?